The NIV 365 Day Devotional

Turn

Every day we surrender our lives to people we don’t even know. We rely on the fast-food server to wash his hands before handing us our hamburger. We’re confident that our dentist has the necessary education and skill to correctly fill our cavity. When we stop at the gas station to ask for directions, we believe that the attendant is more familiar with the area than we are. As we board the airplane to cross the United States, we depend on the skill of the pilot to reach our destination safely.

Some of us have driven behind a slow-moving semi laboring up a mountain grade on a winding, two-lane road. The trucker would periodically motion for a string of cars to go around him. By merely waving us on, a complete stranger was taking responsibility for our physical safety and that of our families. We passed the truck safely and, glancing into our rearview mirror, observed a line of cars whose drivers had also put their blind trust and faith in a stranger as they, too, passed the 18-wheeler.

It’s so hard for us to surrender our own will and control, to trust our lives unreservedly to God’s care. Yet the reality is that this one-time decision determines our destiny. We put our faith into action by simply taking God at his word. In Romans 10:9 the apostle Paul assures us that “if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Turning over our lives to our Higher Power, Jesus Christ, just seems too simple for some of us. “What’s the catch?” we wonder. At that point it’s important for us to accept the fact that we don’t need to understand all the implications of our decision.

First Corinthians 13:12 explains the situation this way: “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

We need to do three things as we turn over our lives to Christ: trust, understand and repent. The good news is that when we choose to turn over our lives to Christ, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime decision. Once we accept Christ into our lives as our Savior and Lord, it’s a done deal. Ephesians 1:13 assures each of us that “you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”

Once we turn our will over to God, it requires a daily choice to seek and follow God’s will and purpose for our lives. We can begin by going to the Bible regularly, opening it prayerfully, reading it expectantly and living it joyfully. If you haven’t asked Jesus Christ to be your Higher Power, the Savior and Lord of your life, what are you waiting for?

Taken from the NIV Celebrate Recovery Study Bible.